I just found out that we can actually take part in SETI searches from home! When connected to the internet, we can temporarily donate idle computer power to search for signals from extraterrestrial intelligence...

Astronomer Seth Shostak said he expects to see a result between 2020 and 2025 according to the Drake equation (a brilliant but, err, hand-waving ) equation that estimates the number of advanced extraterrestrial civilisations in our Galaxy... We've got a bit of a wait yet, so once you've downloaded the program you might want to put the kettle on!